I was first introduced to open-source on IRC back in 1996. I joined the #toriamos channel on undernet, which was managed by an eggdrop bot named [iCKy]. [iCKy] was an open-source TCL and C-based program that did cool stuff for us, like auto-ban users if they were flooding the channel. There was even a party line that …

Well, if it wasn't my very first, it is close enough. Back in 1997, I was taking a computer class at a non-progressive college in Northwest Louisiana. Most of the tech classes still teaching Fortran and the faculty pushed back hard when I asked if we could work with more modern technology. I was disappointed with my …

Although I've been using SSMS 2017 on my demo machine for a while, I kept SSMS 2016 on my primary workstation until today. I've been unsure of the new look of SSMS 2017, but now that I've fallen in love with the way it handles XEvents, I decided to make the switch. Whaatup! That's super handy. Unfortunately, you can't …

Today's blog post is part of T-SQL Tuesday. T-SQL Tuesday is the brainchild of Adam Machanic. It is a monthly blog party on the second Tuesday of each month. Everyone is welcome to participate. This month’s T-SQL Tuesday, hosted by my buddy Jens Vestergaard (blog | twitter), is all about the SQL Server tools I use and …

This month Andy Leonard (b/t) wants to know why we do what we do. Matthew Broderick When I was a kid, I watched War Games and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and immediately wanted to hack. I actually got in trouble for calling Sarah McLachlan's record label's BBS to try to hack. I had no idea it was a Canadian number! They …

I've been seeing quite a bit of posts about speaking mentorships and I wanted to share a few speaking tips I recently gave to my buddy Garry Bargsley who will be speaking about dbatools at SQL Saturday Phoenix 2018. The first time I ever spoke in front of a live audience was in Antwerp, Belgium for SQL Server Days …

NOTE: If you're not yet using Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, please follow this article instead. The recent OS X High Sierra iamroot vulnerability reminded me just how many people don't secure their remote desktop connections. While Windows Remote Desktop is more secure than VNC, neither RDP, ADP nor VNC should be …

NOTE: If you're using Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, please follow this article instead. The recent OS X High Sierra iamroot vulnerability reminded me just how many people don't secure their remote desktop connections. While Windows Remote Desktop is more secure than VNC, neither RDP, ADP nor VNC should be directly …

Today's blog post is part of T-SQL Tuesday. T-SQL Tuesday is the brainchild of Adam Machanic. It is a monthly blog party on the second Tuesday of each month. Everyone is welcome to participate. This month’s T-SQL Tuesday, hosted by Ewald Cress‏ (blog | twitter), is all about people who have made a difference in our …

SSPI handshake failed with error code 0x80090311, state 14 while establishing a connection with integrated security; the connection has been closed. Reason: AcceptSecurityContext failed. The Windows error code indicates the cause of failure. No authority could be contacted for authentication. Login failed. The login is …